Viola Mangelica Euphorbia meets the Duke Cersis Tinensis Fisalis, who immediately tells her that he’s proposing a contract marriage. In other words, Viola’s to be his show wife! With this knowledge and jumping forward a year later, the two get married at the Royal Capital. Plenty are happy, select ladies cry in despair since they can’t marry this hot man, and only the two partners know of this sham marriage.
They then move into the house, Cersis immediately ventures to his love nest with his real lover, and Viola has to figure out what it truly means to be a Madam of the H–
…Wait a minute…this all sounds eerily familiar…
So unbeknownst to me, while I was scrolling Renta! for a day, I noticed that this manga, The Duchess Of Rosia -A Contract Marriage? How Did This Happen!?-, totally looked familiar, and realized this was the title J-Novel Club licensed last year. Renta! from what I could tell has been releasing the manga since 2018, so it was a rare opportunity to jump in and not only read it in this version but also see how it compares to JNC’s translation.
Well, in short, it’s not better, but it certainly ain’t bad at all. Factoring in that we are comparing a manga to a light novel, the manga captures Viola’s vibrant personality really well. And of course, with it being in manga format we can visually get a clear idea of what’s happening. Conversely, there’s nothing as fun the Call Now! line though.
If there’s anything to critique, it’s how the names are. You’ll still see Viola and Cersis, but others not so much (Rohtas in JNC’s version/Lotus in Renta!’s version). Cottage didn’t get much use in the manga. Grace was a thing later in the read, which was inconvenient at times. But that’s mostly minor. In the end, the biggest issue is the title, which, and someone can correct me on this, I can only presume is a more straightforward translation of Dareka Kono Joukyou wo Setsumei Shite Kudasai Keiyaku kara Hajimaru Wedding. Yeah, The Duchess Of Rosia -A Contract Marriage? How Did This Happen!? is simply not as sharp as Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On?!.
Though if Renta! went this route:
“The Duchess of Rosia? A Contract Marriage? How Did This Happen?!” that could’ve worked…
But, minding all of that, the manga is still really entertaining. As explained earlier, Cersis has Calendula so he just needs someone who will accept being his wife in name only. With crippling debt in the family, Viola agrees to take the offer. The first 11 chapters make up the first volume of the light novel. It’s pretty much like the LN, but there are many terrific expressions we can only see in manga format. Kazura Kinosaki, the creator of the upcoming English release of Strawberry Fields Once Again, does an excellent job bringing this from LN to manga form.
And with us being able to see more perspectives — like we even see Calendula knock down a vase — it adds a few more details that we can’t get in the LN since that’s written in first-person. Obviously with the mediums being different, there are internal monologues and other details that had to be cut from the manga.
So all in all, you’ll likely enjoy reading the manga just as much as you would the LN. The LN might just be a bit better, but with pleasant art, good characters and a solid localization, the only issue for the manga is you might have to get used to how Renta! makes you read it.